DC100 Production Confirmed, Actively Explore U.S. Market

Frank Klaas, Global Head of Communications, kicked things off for Jaguar Land Rover this morning at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show. Land Rover has mentioned California in conjunction with the DC100 and particularly with the DC100 Sport, so the LA show was a natural choice of venue for introducing the concepts to North America.

DC100 Introduced

John Edwards, Global Brand Director at Land Rover, had the honor of revealing the DC100 and DC100 Sport concepts and talked at length about how the DC100 is deeply rooted within the DNA of the Defender. Edwards also confirmed that Land Rover will put the DC100 into production. This was largely considered a given and still does not necessarily mean that the DC100 we see today is exactly the DC100 we’ll get come 2015. Although, at this point, we’re talking about refinements rather than wholesale changes.

Land Rover chose to unveil a DC100 without the off-road kit seen last week that included a roof rack, off-road lighting, Cooper tires, and a snorkel.

Interestingly, after a buildup by Edwards regarding the off-road heritage of the Defender line, the company chose to unveil a DC100 without the off-road package — roof rack, off-road lighting, Cooper off-road tires, and snorkel — that was revealed by Road & Track spy shots last week. Rather, they chose a plain Heritage Blue DC100 with a white top, but did keep the Cooper tires.

Bringing the DC100 to the U.S.

Additionally, Edwards said the company will “actively explore” bringing the new Defender to the U.S. market. This was stated after a buildup about how important the U.S. market is to the company by Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover. While “actively explore” is a rather vague exclamation, there is almost no doubt that the company will bring the DC100/Defender to U.S. shores, perhaps even with diesel and/or hybrid power.

“Needs More Off-Road Capability”

For the most part, the press conference confirmed a few things we already know. If anything was controversial, it was an unexpected — and probably out of context — remark of “needs more off-road capability” immediately before Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director at Jaguar, went on the stage to unveil the Jaguar XKR-S Convertible and the C-X16. Somebody could have been making a tongue-in-cheek statement about the Jaguars, for all we know.

Note this version of the press conference has been abridged by Jaguar Land Rover.

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